Greenfield nursing home closing; Patients scramble to find new homes

Bill Haldeman has lived at Kindred Transitional Care and Rehabilitation in Greenfield for the last five years.

He considers it home.

Kindred announced last week that the Greenfield facility will be shut down in the next six to nine months.

The company held a meeting Monday with families of residents and more than 400 employees who will be affected.

"I'm going to have to find a place somewhere eventually, I'm not going to have a place like this," Haldeman said.

Haldeman has incomplete quadriplegia, which began several years ago when doctors removed tumors from his spine.

He also recently learned he has cancer.

"I don't know how the other nursing homes deal with a person with my medical needs," he said.

Haldeman, 66, is one of 200 patients who will have to find a new care facility. Because he is on Medicare and Medicaid, his options are limited.

Haldeman's daughter, Shelly Sarasin, said Kindred explained that they were being bought out by another company, but had no answer as to where their residents could go.

"The main answer is, 'I'm sorry. We can't give you that information right now because we haven't filed our paperwork, but once we do we'll provide you with a list of local nursing homes,'" Sarasin said.

Haldeman's daughter said she called more than 30 nursing homes in the area, but was told none have room for new residents.

The facility said it will hold another meeting in about three weeks to provide additional help, according to Sarasin.

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